9 Things I Noticed About NYC After Being Gone Since Pre-COVID
I left New York in 2019, but the city didn't stop when I was gone. It never does. Here are nine things I noticed on my return.
I lived in New York City for 6 years while I completed my PhD at Teachers College, Columbia University. I loved living in the city, and still miss it dearly. But my job called me out to the sunny skies of Southern California.
I have not been back to NYC since 2019. During that period, a lot has happened, including COVID-19, various protest movements, and some high-profile incidents. Over this time, there have been a lot of takes that the city was in a “Doom Loop” or was already “dead forever.”
I watched from afar, wondering if the place I had grown up (intellectually) in and loved was truly spiraling. Even right before I arrived for my trip, the Luigi Mangione assassination happened and Daniel Penny was found not guilty basically the same week.
I was also back to conduct some research on sites around the city, so I was bringing an investigative lens to everything I was looking at. Here are nine things I noticed on my return, along with photos from me.
1. The Subway Was Safe And Fine
Watching what was happening in NYC from my cushy California Suburb, I kept hearing how degraded the city had become in recent years, especially the subway. Reports of crime and other degradations always seem to pop up on my social media feed (even a horrific one the day I am writing this). Conversations around the Daniel Penny case seemed to suggest that people in the city were simply fed up with the decline.
But what I found was basically the same ole subway that I rode to work everyday back when I lived Harlem. Of course, there were sights of homelessness, panhandlers, and show-time boys—this is nothing new. It did not feel any more unsafe than before nor did it seem in rapid decay. If you were scared of the subway in 2014, you would still be scared today. If not, the subway is still the same subway as before. Numbers suggest that, despite the high-profile cases, the city is still relativity safe.
2. Increased Police Presence
I must concede, though, that #1 on my list might have something to do with #2. I did notice an increased police presence in the subway and around the city. Cops were everywhere. Apparently, some of the security comes from the National Guard, who were sent in 2022 after a particularly bad spate.
Now, it may be that this increase was a response to Daniel Penny or other incidents, but the current state is that police and security are ever-present. My guess is that following the George Floyd protests and other similar incidents, NYPD pulled back to various degrees, giving rise to some of the perceptions of the city's degradation. Since then, they have redeployed in droves, with a big show of force across the city. Even then, stuff can still happen…
3. Luigi Mangione/ Daniel Penny Will Pass into Wind
As mentioned, the assassination happened the previous week before I arrived, and the Penny verdict just a couple of days prior, too. So I was expecting that there would be some kind of protests or movements around either (or both) cases. While there definitely were some protests honoring Jordan Neely, I did not witness any of them. I did see a guy in a Mario costume driving around in some kind of tri-car blasting insanely loud music. But I think he was just being weird, not memorializing his brother.
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Of course, the people I was visiting talked about these incidents and their broader societal implications. But they were just part of a myriad of topics related to the NYC metro or national scene, none really dominated more than the other. In fact, the drones over New Jersey may have even been the more dominant storyline while I was in the city!
4. Israel-Palestine Bubbling
One event that I did see in the physical landscape was the Israel-Palestine conflict. Not that this was something everyone was talking about or on the local news station. Rather, it was something that had a presence on the physical landscape of the city. On random streets, I would see posters reminding of missing hostages or graffiti decrying the incursion. It should be no surprise at a university I visited, The New School, there were protest pamphlets and students wearing keffiyehs.
No wonder Columbia University seemed to be the epicenter of the student movement last year. Given the palpability, my guess is that we see more protests on Israel-Palestine in the Spring semester when Trump takes over as president. These protests in New York seem to inspire others throughout the country. If I were an administrator at a college, I’d take note.
5. Bikes Everywhere
Another pleasant surprise was the growth of bikes. I don’t hide my affinity for biking, cycling infrastructure, and general culture around the pedal-powered mode of transport. So I was excited to see that the city had embraced biking even more than when I lived there. Citibikes are everywhere now, including the coveted electric pedal assist versions. When I lived there, the system was just starting to be established; now it seems like the network is an integral transportation node.
There were also a slew of delivery guys on various kinds of bikes, often electric, and other riders (some for leisure, some for transport). Because of the increase in riders, I could start to see how anti-bike sentiments have been bubbling in recent years. There are now a lot more conflict points between walking-biking-driving. For pedestrians, this means not only dodging in-attentive drivers but also speeding bikers when crossing the street. Even though I think the solution is simply taking a bit more space from cars, it is something to keep an eye on in the coming years.
6. Increased Foot traffic
One reason that there is seemingly more conflict between bikes (and cars, too) with pedestrians is that there seems to just be more people walking around. The sidewalks simply didn’t provide ample space for ambling. Instead, people were spilling out into the streets, or bike lanes.
Granted, I spent a lot of time in Midtown and it was Christmas time, so it makes sense that there were more tourists and holiday shoppers out and about. But I do not recall those same levels of foot traffic in my years living there. Even locals have noticed, as the Bryant Park Christmas village has been dubbed a 'nightmare’ by locals.
The record-setting crowds do put to rest that the city is on a death spiral, though. New York City today reminded me of the famous quote from the late great Yankee Yogi Berra, "No one goes there nowadays, it's too crowded."
7. Christmas Still Unmatched
Speaking of Christmas, I was reminded that Christmas in New York City is unmatched. From Rockefeller Center to Macy’s Christmas display, and just all the decor around the city, it is simply a beautiful place to be during this specific holiday season. No wonder movies like Miracle on 34th Street have tried to capture that spirit.
One of my favorite things about the city during Christmas time is the Christmas tree stalls. On various sidewalks around the city, there are these little stands selling Christmas trees. They set them up on both sides of the sidewalk, so pedestrians walking through a pine tree hallway. The smell of fresh-cut pine with, lights strung across towering skyscrapers, and Christmas music playing over a busted speaker, it is a whimsical jolt to the senses—sight, sound, hearing. I’m glad it’s still a tradition.
8. Upgrades and Technology
I guess I didn’t know what to expect on this one. But a lot of things were simply updated or upgraded. Trash cans had electronic locks—even getting trash bins was a big recent win for the city. There were touch screen doorbells, which I was surprised hadn’t been smashed to pieces. Some subway stations had fresh coats of paint and a lot less trash on the tracks.
Even disgusting Penn Station got a facelift, going from a dim bus station vibe to a brightly lit international airport terminal, and with Shake Shack and Raising Canes! Likewise, Newark Airport also got an impressive upgrade. In general, it seemed like there were just more things geared toward higher-income crowds. New glass buildings with luxury stores and three dollar sign restaurants.
9. Things are More Expensive
All those new glass buildings and fancy facelifts need to be paid for somehow. Perhaps this is a basic take: the city did seem more expensive. The metro area has, of course, always been relatively pricey, but the wealth has continued to climb—contrary to the decaying stereotype often depicted on social media.
Hotels, in particular, were out of control with prices. For instance, I was researching a dead college where dorms had been converted into a hotel. The attendant there told me the average rate for a room was $600 per night. This was not a fancy place, just a run-of-the-mill type hotel (converted dorms!). We even stayed at a hostel for a couple of nights to soften the blow to our wallets. The AirBnB ban and migrant crisis have both been blamed for the steep rises in prices.
Food and other daily items seemed more inflated than usual, too. I did see the locked-down stores like CVS that have been widely reported. Retail theft is reportedly way up, which has apparently impacted prices. Likewise, I ate lunch at a little hole-in-the-wall cheesesteak place in Long Island and it cost $25. I guess that’s just the going rate for most lunches in the metro area now.
I did still have some classic cheap eats (or drinks) in my old haunts. My favorite dive bar in the world, Rudy’s, was still selling cheap pitchers of beer and giving out free hot dogs. I was happy to find that this place hadn’t changed much. Rudy’s was alive and well in a city that wasn’t dead. NYC hadn’t gone anywhere, only I had.
